Call to revoke Nobel prize for lobotomy inventor
Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies are lobbying to revoke a Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to the inventor of the procedure. Portuguese neurosurgeon Egas Moniz developed the technique in 1935 as a way of treating people with severe psychiatric illnesses and was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for medicine. Even at the time, the technique was controversial, with some doctors criticising it as brutal, unscientific and harmful. However, in some cases spectacular recoveries happened and between the mid-1930s and the 1970s, about 50,000 Americans received lobotomies.
Some lobotomised patients, however, had to be institutionalised after the operation. The daughter of one woman who became unable to care for herself after a 1949 lobotomy to cure chronic headaches is now agitating to strip Moniz of his prize. But the director of the Nobel foundation has flatly refused to consider the idea. “There’s no possibility to revoke it,” says Michael Sohlman. “It’s a non- starter.”
- Prescribe morning-after pills to young teenagers, say US pediatric group - November 30, 2012
- Bahrain sentences protest docs to prison - November 28, 2012
- Terry Pratchett assisted suicide documentary wins International Emmy - November 27, 2012
More Stories
Japanese PM says that his country is falling off a demographic cliff
Japan’s Prime Minister has warned that his country will fall over an economic and social cliff unless it manages to...
Houellebecq savages euthanasia
Michel Houellebecq, France’s popular but controversial novelist, has stepped once more unto the breach in his crusade against euthanasia. Houellebecq’s...
Loneliness, the silent killer
Doctors need to pay more attention to social isolation and loneliness (SIL) in treating patients, according to a “Perspective” article...
Gentle giant’s skeleton removed from museum
Earlier this month the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, announced that it will remove from the display cases of...
Stem cell huckster sent to jail for 202 years
A 71-year-old Florida man has been sentenced to 202 years in jail for selling fake stem cell treatments in several...
Canada leads the world in organ donation euthanasia
Canada legalised euthanasia in 2016, long after Belgium and the Netherlands, but it is already the world leader in organ...